Blog Post

For Comcast, data equals big dollars

Comcast(s CMCSA), the largest broadband provider in the US is getting bigger and bigger. During the first quarter of 2012 (ending March 31), the company added439,000 net new high-speed Internet customers to bring the final tally to 18.58 million. Thanks to that whopping growth, company says its high-speed Internet revenues came in at $2.32 billion, up 10.3 percent from first quarter 2011, when it had revenues of $2.11 billion. In comparison, the company brought in $2.23 billion in high-speed Internet revenues during the fourth quarter of 2011 and added 292,000 new customers. It ended 2011 with 18.15 million broadband customers.

Comcast and other cable companies are getting a big share of data dollars mostly because they are offering higher speed packages. In comparison to the cable companies, phones companies are seeing their slower DSL business whither away. In the first quarter of 2012, AT&T (s T) lost about 616,000 broadband customers while Verizon (s VZ) added 103,000 customers.

In comparison to broadband, during the first quarter of 2012, Comcast lost 37,000 video customers during the first three months of 2012, and added 164,000 voice customers. It now has 22.3 million video customers and 9.51 million voice customers.

In the first quarter, combined Video, High-Speed Internet and Voice customers increased by 565,000, driven by High-Speed Internet customer net additions, up 5% over the prior year. As of March 31, 2012, Video, High-Speed Internet and Voice customers totaled 50.4 million, an increase of 2.8% over last year’s first quarter. [Comcast Press Release]

On December 31, 2011, video, high-speed internet and voice customers totaled 49.8 million, an increase of 3.0% over the prior year, Comcast said.